Viacom invades Germany
Viacom, which owns international rock music cable channel MTV, recently extended its reach by buying Viva Media, a German company that owns its own German-performer-oriented music video station. In addition to gaining a lock on music video programming in Germany, Viacom is planning to expand its presence throughout German cable TV, where MTV's English-language program already has a presence. The deal was for over $370 million.
A Viacom executive is quoted in a Wall Street Journal article ("Viacom Swoops on Viva", 6/14/2004): "We want to create a platform of scale. It would be a base from which we can launch additional networks, particularly as digital television is taking off."
Another exec is quoted in the New York Times ("Viacom to Buy German Rival to MTV," 6/24/2004) as saying "Our intentions for the German market are long term and permanent....This is a place where we've wanted to develop scale. It's sort of a dream deal.""
This is the most high profile of recent US investments in German television, the largest market in Europe. Among the channels MTV plans to introduce, according to the Times story, is the children's channel, Nickelodeon. In addition, Germany is due for a rollout of digital TV in the near future (it lags behind other industrialized countries), and Viacom wants to be there.
The purchase makes Viacom the #3 player in German cable TV, after RTL (Bertelsmann) and ProSiebenSat 1 (owned by a US investor).
8:02:51 PM 
|
|
